CENTRAL JERSEY - A few days after temperatures plunged near zero, temperatures jumped into balmy 60s Friday.

And while the mild temperatures brought a brief respite from the unremitting cold that has gripped Central Jersey since Christmas, heavy rain brought a fresh batch of problems, including power outages throughout the area.

At one time Friday, more than 30,000 customers were without power in northeastern Middlesex County and central Union County.

A power outage Friday forced the closure of Macy's and the rest of Menlo Park Mall in Edison.(Photo11: Suzanne Russell/Staff Photo)

A power outage caused Menlo Park Mall in Edison to close at about 12:30 p.m. But the mall re-opened shortly after 5 p.m.

By 4 p.m., the number of customers without power had been reduced to about 4,000.

The most widespread outage was in South Amboy, Sayreville and Old Bridge, where Jersey Central Power and Light reported more than 5,000 customers without power.

Public Service Electric and Gas at 4 p.m. reported 200 customers without power in Woodbridge and Edison, and 600 without power in the Cranford and Linden area.

Earlier Friday, Westfield, Garwood and Cranford were hard hit by outages in the corridor of NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line. Except for scattered outages, power had been restored in most of the neighborhoods.

The wild swings in the weather will continue Saturday when an Arctic cold front will drop temperatures 30 degrees from about 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lows on Saturday will reach 9 degrees with windchills at zero.

And to replenish the snow pack that disappeared on Thursday and Friday, the National Weather Service is predicting snow for Tuesday.